


Change This Lonely Life

by Persiflage



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Bars and Pubs, Cousy RomCom Challenge, Diners, Engagement, F/M, First Kiss, Future Fic, Inspired by Music, Karaoke, POV Phil Coulson, Post-Season/Series 05, Sad Sexy Baby Deer Phil Coulson, Sappy, Singing, background mackelena
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-19
Updated: 2018-03-19
Packaged: 2019-04-04 14:28:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,831
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14022261
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Persiflage/pseuds/Persiflage
Summary: Post S5: Coulson and Daisy finally admit their feelings for each other.





	Change This Lonely Life

**Author's Note:**

  * For [zauberer_sirin](https://archiveofourown.org/users/zauberer_sirin/gifts), [hamsterfactor](https://archiveofourown.org/users/hamsterfactor/gifts).



> Written for the johnsonandcoulson RomCom Challenge on Tumblr for the song prompt _I Wanna Know What Love Is_ by Foreigner.

“Where’s Daisy?” Coulson asks, looking around the common area of the Lighthouse, and noticing that Mack nor Elena aren’t present either.

“Keeping Mack and Elena company,” Piper answers. “They’re – uh – celebrating getting engaged.”

“Why aren’t we having a party?” Coulson asks, confused.

Piper shrugs. She’s still awkward around them, even though it’s been 6 months since her ‘betrayal’ cost Elena her arms. And while that particular situation didn’t stick thanks to Daisy managing to defy Fitz’s insistence that time is fixed, he thinks Piper’s going to take a while longer to feel comfortable around them. He knows that Elena and Mack have both forgiven her, and that they both understood that Piper had had a lot on her shoulders and had genuinely thought she was doing the right thing in going to Hale, but she’s finding it harder to forgive herself. He knows May is helping, though, and hopes that eventually Piper will be able to move on.

“Okay, I’d better go and get them,” Coulson says. He needs to talk to Daisy about an upcoming mission.

He takes an SUV and drives into town. When he arrives at the bar, he finds it busy and realises there’s a Karaoke event going on. He’s startled when he discovers that Daisy’s on the stage at the front, singing what, after a moment, he recognises as an 80s hit: Foreigner’s _I Wanna Know What Love Is_. Initially he remains by the door, simply listening to Daisy sing:

_In my life there's been heartache and pain_  
_I don't know if I can face it again_  
_Can't stop now, I've travelled so far, to change this lonely life_

She’s got an amazing voice and he wonders why she never became a singer – he’s fairly sure she’d have been a huge hit. He looks at the people crowded around at the front of the stage and quickly spots Mack and Elena, grateful for the other man’s greater height because it makes him easier to see in a crowd. The pair are wrapped in each other’s arms and swaying along to the music, and he can’t help feeling grateful all over again that Daisy managed to reverse the events that had seen them thrust into the future then brought back to the past. She’d not only saved Elena from losing both her arms, but had also saved him from the consequences of his deal with Ghost Rider.

He looks back at the stage and realises that Daisy’s spotted him because she’s looking at him, so he begins moving through the crowd, and as he does so, he tunes back in to the words she’s singing: 

_I want to know what love is, I want you to show me_  
_I want to feel what love is, I know you can show me_  
_I want to know what love is, I want you to show me_  
_(And I want to feel) I want to feel what love is_  
_(And I know) I know you can show me_  
_Let's talk about love, I want to know what love is_  
_The love that you feel inside, I want you to show me_  
_And I'm feeling so much love, I want to feel what love is_  
_No, you just can't hide, I know you can show me_

He feels himself beginning to blush as he notices that she’s staring at him as she sings. He reaches Mack and Elena, and touches Mack’s arm, then Elena’s shoulder to get their attention.

“I hear congratulations are in order,” he says, practically having to shout to make himself heard.

Mack looks a bit guilty, Coulson thinks, whereas Elena’s expression is more defiant. “I’m sorry, sir,” Mack begins, and Coulson waves away his apology.

“You’re not obliged to tell me,” he says, but before he can continue the crowd erupts into cheering and applause, and he realises Daisy’s finished her song. She puts the microphone back on its stand, waves at the crowd, then crosses the stage, hurries down the steps, then comes to join them.

“Hey Phil.” She only briefly acknowledges him before turning to her two friends. “Do you want to take this somewhere quieter, or would you prefer us to leave you to celebrate without us?”

“Would you mind?” Mack asks, a hopeful expression on his face.

“Why should she mind?” asks Elena, then says something in Spanish, the words coming too fast for Coulson to be sure he’s heard her correctly because it sounds like she’s telling Mack that Daisy’s got her sweetie now – and Coulson blushes again.

“Take the SUV we came in,” Daisy tells them. “Go and get yourselves a room for the night. Phil can see me home.”

Coulson feels a swoop in his chest at her words – this is the first time she’s referred to their new base as ‘home’. He also feels a bit thrilled at the idea of spending time alone with Daisy – they’ve both been far too busy over the past 6 months to manage that very often, and he’s aware that their ‘declarations’ (his that there’s no universe in which he’d have left her behind to sacrifice herself, and hers that there’s nothing without him) have not been addressed at any point during that period. Normally he’d be reluctant to say anything, fearing the possibility of ruining the relationship they already have, but since he’s now on his second second chance at life, he’s beginning to feel disinclined to let it go any longer. 

The four of them make their way outside, and Daisy sends Mack and Elena off with quick hugs, then turns to Coulson.

“Let’s go and get a coffee,” she suggests, and he nods, glad that she doesn’t want to head back to the Lighthouse just yet.

“I’m really happy for Mack and Elena,” he tells her as they stroll down the street, their arms brushing as they walk in sync. He’s tempted to take hold of her hand, but it’s a bit too soon for that, he feels.

“Me too,” she agrees with a sigh. “They are perfect for each other.” 

To his surprise she grabs his hand – the prosthetic – and draws him out of the way of an oncoming crowd of young people in their late teens and early 20s, and although he can’t really feel her holding his hand, not properly, he nevertheless feels a thrill at the fact that Daisy is _holding his hand_.

“Where are we heading?” he asks once they begin walking again, his hand still enclosed by hers. 

“There’s a nice little diner not too far from here,” she says, and he finds himself unsurprised that she knows where to find a nice diner. 

They reach the diner, _Maggie’s_ , a few minutes later, and he lets her guide him across the shop to a corner booth as far from the windows as possible. He takes a seat on the bench facing the rest of the shop, and she slides in beside him, and he can feel his heart beginning to thump a bit harder.

A waitress, a tall black woman of about Daisy’s age, approaches, pad at the ready, and gives them a bright smile. “Can I help you?”

Daisy gives her order, coffee and a doughnut, and Coulson orders the same, then he waits, wondering who’s going to be the first to speak.

“Were you looking for me specifically earlier?” she asks.

“Yeah. I wanted to talk to you about Friday’s mission.”

She nods. “Go ahead.”

He glances around to make sure there’s no one in eavesdropping distance, then explains what he’s concerned about, and she listens attentively, then discusses his concerns. They pause when Teri returns with their orders, and Coulson wonders what she sees when she looks at the two of them: does she think they’re a couple, or does she think they’re father and daughter? He recalls once telling May that Daisy was the closest thing he had to a daughter, but it was a lie – he knew it then, and is even more certain of it now – she’s never been like a daughter to him.

After Teri’s gone and they’ve finished their discussion there’s a pause in the conversation while they attack their doughnuts, then Daisy says, “I feel like this conversation about Friday’s op isn’t the real reason you came to find me this evening.”

“No,” he agrees. “I did want to talk about the mission, but that’s not what I most wanted to talk about.”

“Go on then.” There’s a look in her eye that he can’t quite place for a long moment, and then he remembers the song she was singing earlier and he realises she’s hoping that he wants to talk about them.

“You know what, I don’t think words are what’s needed here,” he says softly, and reaches up to cup her cheek, then leans in, his mouth a breath away from hers.

“No they’re not,” she murmurs, and her lips brush against his, then she clasps his face and kisses him properly, her tongue easily slipping into his mouth and sliding against his. 

He groans softly as she deepens the kiss, and he drops his hand from her cheek to her shoulder, then slides his hand down her arm, before it drops to her waist. “Daisy,” he moans.

“Phil,” she murmurs. “We should probably take this someplace else.”

“Mmhmm,” he agrees, insinuating his hand under her flannel shirt and dragging his thumb over her skin above the waistband of her jeans.

She pulls back, gently, chuckling in amusement. “Phil,” she says, and that second repetition of his name seems, finally, to cut through some of the haze of desire in his mind.

“Sorry,” he says, feeling a bit remorseful. 

“Don’t be,” she says immediately. “I’m not. But for decency’s sake, and the sake of our status as Agents of SHIELD, I don’t think the Director should be caught in a compromising position with her favourite agent in a local diner, do you?”

“I’m your favourite?” he asks, touched, and she rolls her eyes at him.

“How you can doubt that after all this time, I do not know.”

He shrugs, feeling a bit embarrassed at needing that affirmation. “I didn’t like to presume.”

She shakes her head, but she’s smiling fondly at him, so he reckons she doesn’t mind that little bit of insecurity. “Let’s get out of here, and I’ll show you just how special you are to me,” she suggests, and he feels himself blushing, which he knows is ridiculous in a man his age, but he can’t help himself.

Daisy, thankfully, doesn’t seem to mind. She leans in for another, brief, chaste almost, kiss, then slides out of the booth, and offers him her hand. He takes it and they slip out of the diner together, then head back to where he left the SUV. He feels a simmering excitement in his belly at the thought of what will happen next and thinks it’s the most alive he’s ever felt.


End file.
